Assistant Professor of Financial Management and Economics, Higher Education Management Studies Dept., Institute for Research and Planning in Higher Education, Tehran, Iran. & Assistant Professor of Financial Management and Economics, Higher Education Management Studies Dept., Institute for Research and Planning in Higher Education, Tehran, Iran. , a.roshan@irphe.ac.ir
Abstract: (254 Views)
Objective:Justice, along with freedom, is one of the most important human values. Governments, societies, organizations and social institutions gain their legitimacy from justice. In the field of education, the world community is moving towards the implementation of the paradigm of "higher education for all" in order to achieve justice. This approach considers higher education as a right for individuals. One of the most important steps to promote justice is to identify and determine its indicators so that policy making, planning and evaluation can be done in a way that can result in improvement of justice in higher education based on those indicators. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to introduce and to classify the indices and indicators of justice in higher education. By doing so, officials can think more coherently about justice in higher education. Materials and methods: The present research is a descriptive-analytical study. Collecting research data was done by using two methods of documentary research and focus group. In this research, seven higher education officials and managers as well as experts with specializations in higher education, educational management, economics and educational philosophy participated as members of the focus group, and their opinions were collected during two sessions. Data analysis was done using the content analysis method until reaching the theoretical saturation. Finally, the justice indicators were divided into four categories and 50 indicators. Results:Justice indices categorized in four groups: a) individual index (student) with 16 indicators, b) organizational index (university and higher education institutions) with 7 indicators, c) financial and economic index (micro and macro level) with 10 indicators, and d) the comparative index (international comparison) with 17 indicators. Conclusion:A fair higher education system can have two main approaches: a) trying to reduce the difference between individuals, groups and organizations, and b) maximizing the minimum. At the same time, as long as a society is based on unequal structures in obtaining privileged political, economic and social opportunities, we cannot speak of justice in higher education. Fair reforms by using the four indicators listed in this article will bring complete results when other political, economic and social areas are also reformed at the same time.